Tuesday, February 22, 2011

This winter will never end. Of that I'm sure. 'Course, once it does, I'll be up to my eyeballs in work, and will rue the day I wished spring would hurry up. But this weekend is my first breath of gardening season, 2011. It's the Flower Show at the CT Convention Center, and I cannot wait. Just to walk onto the floor, transformed into garden after lush garden... to smell the mingled scents of floral perfume, dirt, mulch, and fertilizer...ahh, that's heaven. Add to that the shopping to be done, for seeds, plants, ephemera, and anything newfangled. And all the hort heads to talk to, whether in booths such as the Tri-State Hosta Society or Connecticut Gardener, or Master Gardeners or nurseries, or? 250 booths crammed full of all things horticultural. Yippee!

I plan to spend all day there on Friday, the 25th, & will lecture at 2 p.m on The Bins & Outs of Composting. Sunday, ditto, will be there all day. My lecture that day is at noon, on Hello My Garden! My newest book, Mentors in the Garden of Life, will be for sale in the Federated Garden Clubs section, and I'll also have copies at my lectures.

This winter has to quit sometime. I have to be able to get at the compost soon, and clear fallen sticks from the yard, and clip the ornamental grass, and so on. But for now, I'd just settle for a day with temperatures above 40 degrees.

Each year, the Flower Shows usher in spring. I can't recall a year when they've been more welcome!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

It's a blustery day; the world outside my frosted front door is still with anticipation of the snow, sleet and freezing rain the weather people have promised us. Nary a car is sliding down the street, but birds are busy at the feeder and squirrels are leaping snowbanks in a single bound to hog the cracked corn and sunflower seed.

My 62nd birthday is today. Mother used to say I was born amidst a snowstorm in '49. But I haven't had such weather on this day in years. In fact, I recall birthdays when I've been out on the lawn picking up sticks in preparation for opening the gardening season. Not so in 2011!

Such a winter day is perfect, however, for reviewing my old garden diaries. And that brings to mind the origins of my gardening passion. As the years fade into one another it's more difficult to remember just how I started, just which plants and plant categories were important to me decades ago. I'm glad I wrote a book regarding some of my gardening memories....Mentors in the Garden of Life helps preserve them for me and for others.

An introspective, retrospective day. We need these upon occasion in our busy lives, and I'm grateful to Mother Nature for forcing one upon me on my birthday.